The ship docked at 7:00am. We disembarked around 9:00am and decided to rent a car that was conveniently right at the dock. After loading our baggage we headed out of Vancouver to the north toward Whistler Ski Resort on the Sea to Sky Highway. What a beautiful highway! Just renovated to the tune of a million dollars back in 2010 just in time for the opening of the winter Olympics.
The Sea to Sky Highway has to be one of the number one scenic highways in the world. The roadway scenery is as beautiful as the Route 1 in California. It follows the coastal route that our ship took leaving Vancouver, but veers off into the mountains after awhile. The views were STUPENDOUS! Lots of snowcapped mountains and inter-coastal water views. Larry kept saying, "I wish we were on the motorcycle" because of the curves and the beautiful scenery.
We stopped several times to get photos. About an hour outside of Vancouver, we hiked to the Shannon Falls. They towered way over our head and were is full flow with pounding waters rushing over the mountains edge.
As we drove numerous waterfalls came out of the mountains that were to our east and rushed under the roadway. We came to another park about half an hour outside of Whistler where we hiked to the Brandywine Falls. Here we observed the rivers end and watched the water topple below us into another stream. Beautiful!
Rushing stream that fed the Brandywine Falls
Rainbow at the Brandywine Falls
On we drove coming to the Olympic Park and decided to drive up to the sight. We were disappointed after driving to the end of the 10 kilometer road to find that it was closed and gated up.
The disappointment vanished when we spotted a bear eating something on the side of the road as we meandered our way back to the highway. It was fun to watch!
Around 1:00pm we reached the town of Whistler that appeared to be a very exclusive resort. Lots of condos, hotels and large homes nestled in at the foot of the numerous ski trails. Although the mountain looked sparse of snow in many areas, there were skiers and snowboarders on the mountain using the one lift that was open. The ski resort appeared to have three or more mountains of ski trails coming into the town. Because this is a premiere resort, I feel sure that there were more runs down the backside of the mountains as well.
We headed back after an hour or so of exploring the town and found that the ride back to Vancouver was just as beautiful as the journey was coming! We managed to skirt most of the 5:00pm traffic coming out of Vancouver and arrived at our hotel next to the airport just in time for dinner. The following morning (Thursday), we had a 6:00am flight out of Vancouver into LA and then on to Tampa, Florida arriving at 6:00pm...a full day of traveling. Weeeee!!! With big smiles on our faces, we brought home lots of good memories and pictures of our travels to enjoy for the rest of our lifetime of this 2014 spring adventure .
With big smiles on our faces, we brought home lots of good memories and pictures of our travels to enjoy for the rest of our lifetime of this 2014 spring adventure .
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